Serb Democratic Party

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Bosnia and Herzegovina

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Dayton Agreement High Representative Christian Schwarz-Schilling Presidency (Chairman) Haris Silajdžić (SBiH) Željko Komšić (SDP) Nebojša Radmanović (SNSD) Council of Ministers Acting Chair: Adnan Terzić Parliamentary Assembly House of Peoples House of Representatives Political parties Elections (2006 general elections) Political divisions Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Republika Srpska National Assembly President: Milan Jelić Prime Minister: Milorad Dodik Brčko District Foreign relations

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The Serb Democratic Party (Serbian: Српска демократска Странка or Srpska Demokratska Stranka, СДС or SDS) is a Serbian nationalist political party in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is led by Dragan Čavić who also became the president of the Republika Srpska (RS) on 28 November 2002, in the October general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He succeeded Mirko Šarović.

Čavić received 35.9 per cent of the vote against 22.1 per cent for the closest runner up Milan Jelić. Voter turnout was 53.9 per cent.

At the last legislative elections, 5 October 2002, the party won 14.0 % of the popular vote and 5 out of 42 seats in the House of Representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina and 26 out of 83 in the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska

The Serbian Democratic Party is under sanctions from the United States. The sanctions prohibit any transfer of funds and material from the US to the SDS and vice versa [1].

[edit] History

Some of the party's highest positioned members were :

• Radovan Karadžić (active 1989-1996) a fugitive accused for war crimes by the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia; crimes against humanity, crimes against life and health, genocide, grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva conventions, murder, plunder, and violations of the laws or customs of war (see Geneva Conventions).
• Biljana Plavšić (active 1989-1997) pled guilty to one count of crimes against humanity at the ICTY for her part in persecuting Bosnian Muslims and Croats during the war in Bosnia.
• Momčilo Krajišnik with genocide, crimes against humanity, vilolations of laws of war, and grave breaches of the Geneva conventions.
• Nikola Koljević.

[edit] Other parties

Note that there was also a Serb Democratic Party in Croatia between 1990 and 1995, led by Jovan Rašković and Milan Babić. See also: Republic of Serbian Krajina.

The SDS is easily confused with the Democratic Party in Serbia, or the Democratic Party of Serbia.